Something rich and strange...
updated 28 August 1999
Written by Deb Cox Directed by Ray Argall
GUEST CAST
Greg Saunders as Raoul
Fredique Fouche as Voumard
Arthur Serevetas as Wayne Seddens
Ken Weaver as Les Seddens
Peter Stefanou as Charlie
Lyn's Spiel:
This episode introduces Carmen, the roving hippie food critic, one of the best characters of the series. In the opening sequence, we find her seated in a restaurant, attired formally in a really bad pink suit. She talks shop with the waiter ('this wine was recommended to me as unwooded, but it's definitely oak'), who assuming she's working for a magazine, gives her the meal for free. But after leaving the restaurant, Carmen strips off to reveal - shall we say - a more casual look. In her print shirt and midriff-baring shorts, she scribbles Pearl Bay on a piece of cardboard, and starts looking for a lift. And looking like Alice Garner, I'd say she didn't have to wait too long.
Back at the ranch, the Gibsons have been in Pearl Bay for a month, but things are far from tranquil. Miranda is antagonistic, and when Mitzy the cat disappears, it brings out her resentment about the move. Whilst Miranda is putting up signs advertising a reward for Mitzy (look closely at the sign, it's the only chance we've had to SEE the cat!), the mysterious Carmen rocks into town and immediately empathises with Miranda's plight ('loss is so sad!') As the two put up notices together, they seem to hit it off. But Miranda is late for the ferry. Hence Diver's announcement over the loudspeaker: 'Management wishes to apologise to all passengers on this morning's Venice Canals Tour. The delay is due to traffic congestion, Miranda Gibson's late arrival, and general air of ennui'.
At court, Kevin helpfully suggests to Laura several ways the cat could have died an awful death (tics and carpet snakes), and accompanies each thought with an anecdote and mime. Laura tells Kevin to stay the hell away from her children (but can you actually get carpet snakes on the Victorian coast?). Escaping Kevin to actually do her job, Laura hears a fraud case: Carmen is being tried for misleading a restaurant owner into thinking she was a food critic. Despite the fact that Carmen's only cross examination of the witness is why anyone would be possessed to drown a crab in balsamic vinegar, Laura dismisses the case on the grounds that the charge was not made out.
Carmen then drifts across to the Tropical Star: turns out she's Meredith's long lost niece. But not only is she in town for the court case, she's pregnant, and wants the family christening gown. Meredith is shocked, but immediately starts plotting ways to keep Carmen in town. She comes up with the bright idea of charging Carmen for not paying for a meal; but Sergeant Grey then digs up warrants for thirty similar offences under a variety of pseudonyms. Meredith withdraws her charge, but it's already gotten serious.
Meanwhile, Miranda gets more and more argumentative. A cat, apparently Mitzi, is reported killed, and Miranda blames Laura. She's resentful, she quits school, she plans to move back to Melbourne and live with Trudi. After this final revelation, Laura goes for a walk on the beach, to the discordant strains of Diver's band in the background. When Dan strolls up, the two have their first proper conversation of the series. Nothing substantive happens, but it's a milestone to be recognised! The two go back to the boatshed, and Laura talks at Dan, at great length, about how she needs to reform her life to appreciate the little things in life. Meanwhile, Diver has cooked her a sumptuous, mouthwatering meal that she doesn't seem to notice. I'm sure I'm not the only viewer who thought 'damnit: I'd appreciate it so much more . . .'
But maybe Laura does notice, because she later asks Dan if anyone in town would teach her to cook. Dan replies (wearing the WORST outfit yet: stripy cap and clashing shirt), that by strange coincidence, his cooking class would be meeting the next night: 'Thai'. Laura turns up, and of course discovers it's a class of one . . . and she gets extremely irritated with Dan's back to basics perfectionist approach which involves grinding all the base ingredients. When she asks Diver if he's told Miranda about the classes, Diver replies 'No, she thinks I'm having an affair with Bucket.' 'Are you?' Laura replies. 'No', Diver says reflectively, 'he's too afraid of commitment.' Whatever.
The trial continues with three chefs in town giving evidence. It's quite clear that Carmen has a rather underhand pattern of behaviour, but she never loses audience sympathy for two reasons. First, she's just so endearing! And second, there seems to be a quite sad, but unstated, history with her father, who never had time. Even though it's all a little too obvious that this is supposed to make Laura think of 'scary' parallels with her current problems with Miranda, it's still believable. In a sense, Carmen is a little girl who hasn't grown up yet: even though she's pregnant, she has a beguiling winsome presence which is just lovely to watch. To cut it short, Laura (knowing Meredith's desire to keep her in town) finds her guilty, but orders community service to be served in the Pearl Bay region. So everybody's happy . . .
Even Miranda mellows somewhat. She and Laura reconcile, and Miranda decides to go back to school. In a rather moving scene, Miranda casually says of Laura's efforts to cook, 'If you don't watch out, you'll start being more like Trudi!' Laura breaks down, Rupert leaves, and Miranda finds out about Jack's affair with Trudi. The important part of this is not the revelation, but the effect; Laura turns to Miranda and says to her with raw emotion that she wants Miranda to stay, because she needs her. Miranda smiles and says that she should have said it in the first place. They hug. If this sounds overly emotional, schmaltzy, or corny, it's because I haven't done it justice; it was a great intimate moment, which is one of the best scenes these two have done.
A rather funny side issue which sort of wraps up at the end concerns the three chefs in town to give evidence at Carmen's trial, who have collective fits over the food served at the Tropical Star. It's Diver's night off the first time they have dinner (he can't change his night to cook, because the band is having a creative crisis - Angus is stuck on the Blues, Kevin wants to veer towards Country, etc). But when Diver does cook, the chefs are immediately awed by his cuisine. I think David Wenham does the chef thing quite well; and the scenes of him nervously tasting the food in the kitchen are quite hilarious. ('I knew it! Too much chilli!') The close of the episode is a gala banquet in which the three chefs take over the kitchen and subject the town to (allegedly) good food. In a conclusion that's more satisfying than believable, they even troop out of the kitchen to get Carmen to satisfy a point of contention concerning the gnocchi.
And just as Laura finishes her culinary masterpiece at the close of the episode, there's a yowl and a crash: yes, Mitzi is back. And the peasants rejoice . . .
All in all, a very funny episode. I think it would have been better if the chefs didn't have such relentlessly silly accents. OK, so they were caricatures, but they were irritating as hell!! Another point of interest: throughout this episode, Miranda had set pieces direct to her hand-held camera called 'personal logs'. Although I guess this was to emphasise that she couldn't actually talk to people about things, it was a bit irritating and consciously 'pop culture' oriented through the Star Trek association. I'm glad this device hasn't popped up in later episodes.
The other thing that's great about
this episode is that we are still - to my mind - in interesting stages of the
Laura / Dan relationship. Which is to say that Laura is entirely sure Diver
isn't a freak, and Diver spends most of his time looking startled at the extent
of Laura's neuroticism. You simply couldn't extrapolate any attraction between
the two of them yet. Bewilderment yes, but not attraction. Which is so much
more interesting . . .
Lyn's Spiels © 1999 Lyn
Koala's Comments:
As I'm under the influence of antihistamines which make me very dopey, I will just add comments.
- I like Carmen, too. Alice Garner was also funny in Love and Other Catastrophes which is a cute movie.
- Dan's announcements over the loud-speaker are a classic
- I loved the cooking sequences and talks between Dan and Laura. They're very companionable and chummy. One thing I've noticed is that Dan and Laura were very good as friends, and even though there was attraction between them, it's not as "intense" as the Laura / Max dynamic. Both are great in their own way, but it's interesting that the relationships are so different.
- I liked the scenes were Dan demonstrates his cooking prowess. I agree with Lyn that the chefs were kind of overdrawn and a little stereotypical, but I had to laugh at their horror at the "pub grub" on offer at the Tropical Star. Mind you, I love pub grub myself - chips chips and more chips.
- I liked Miranda, Dan and the pineapples. He has a good relationship with Miranda and Rupert which is what makes the rapid aboutface in the second season a little bit implausible.
- I liked Harold's pathetic attempts at sounding technologically literate with his mis-used Internet jargon.
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